Parents have long believed — and research bears out — that
teenagers are more apt to pursue risky behavior if they believe
“everybody’s doing it.”

Now, in a first-of-its-kind study, a University of
Wisconsin-Madison research team found that young adolescents
believe depictions of underage drinking on social-networking sites
such as MySpace or Facebook are real. Seeing dozens of on-line
profiles boasting of drinking or sex, says the study’s author,
makes risky behavior seem normal among all teens — a belief that
might influence them to pursue the same activities.

Dr. Megan Moreno, assistant professor of pediatrics at the UW
School of Medicine and Public Health, conducted focus groups
involving adolescents, ages 11-18.

“We now have this first step of hearing teens say, ‘If we see
our peers displaying this behavior on a social-networking website,
we believe it is real,” said Moreno.

“If you learn that three of your best friends smoke, then you
are more than likely to adopt that behavior,” she said. “This has
been happening for decades. The concern with social-networking
websites is that these behaviors are now published and accessible
to a much larger network of adolescents than a teen’s typical peer
group.”

According to Moreno, younger adolescents (those under 16 years
old) were especially intrigued by depictions of alcohol use, and
were more likely to believe what they saw.